Mr ROSS CAMERON (3:26 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Will the minister inform the House of recently released ABS data on industrial disputes? What does the report reveal about the government's workplace relations policies? How have those policies acted to make working Australian families better off, and are there any alternative policies?

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business) —I thank the member for Parramatta for his question, which was extremely well put. Over the weekend, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition made an extraordinarily brazen statement. He said:

He has a lot of front on this one.

Government members interjecting—

Mr ABBOTT —He is a front organisation for the ACTU. He is absolutely dead wrong there. Last week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics put out figures showing that in the 12 months to May just 44 working days had been lost per 1,000 employees. That is a 10 per cent decrease on the figures one month earlier, and it is a 56 per cent decrease on one year earlier. It is the lowest figure since this series was first kept in 1982. On other series, industrial disputation is at the lowest figure since records were first kept in 1913.

It is true that there has been a recent upsurge in industrial disputation. It is true that some unions are getting in a bit of pre-election muscle flexing. It is true that some of them are putting in some ambit claims in anticipation that the policy of any future government might be pre-emptive surrender to the union movement. What would you expect from an opposition which is nothing but the political wing of the ACTU and which has as its Treasury spokesman one former ACTU president and as its employment spokesman another ACTU president? After the election, no doubt the industry spokesman will be Jennie George, yet another ACTU president. Sometime in the course of the next parliament, no doubt it will make way for Sharan Burrow, yet another ex-ACTU president. By contrast, this government has an extremely good record of helping working families.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Charlton is warned!

Mr Martin Ferguson —Especially Stan's family!

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Batman is also warned. That is the third occasion on which I have had to draw his attention to the courtesies expected in the House.

Mr ABBOTT —In 5½ years under this government's policies, average weekly earnings have gone up by some 12 per cent. They went up by just four per cent in the 13 years of the former government. In 5½ years this government has put basic award earnings up by some nine per cent. They actually fell by five per cent when members opposite were in government. Workers are earning more, and getting to keep more of their earnings because this government has put in place the biggest income tax cuts on record. And there are more workers, because we put 800,000 new jobs into the economy in 5½ years.

This morning the Leader of the Opposition was asked a question and in response he said, `What they respond to'—that is to say, what voters respond to—`is positive solutions, and what they vote against is people who have done them damage.' Voters remember the damage that the Leader of the Opposition did, they remember the 20 per cent interest rates that he put on small business, they remember unemployment hitting 11 per cent, and they know that the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition are the double digit duo when it comes to unemployment. That is why the people of Australia will never replace the best government since Bob Menzies with the worst opposition since Arthur Calwell.

Mr Howard —Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.